Memphis News Today: Stories That Matter to Our City

Families in Cordova are about to have a new public school option. KIPP Memphis Public Schools kicked off work on KIPP Cordova Collegiate Elementary by swinging sledgehammers at the walls of a former corporate office building, a playful twist on the traditional groundbreaking. The 50,000-square-foot building on Goodlett Farms Parkway is being transformed into a…

Huntington Bank is putting $300,000 behind Memphis families and future workers. The Huntington Bank Community Foundation announced a $250,000, three-year investment in United Housing and a $50,000 grant to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis. The United Housing investment will support families earning less than 80% of the area’s median family income, funding…

Memphis-based FedEx is making one of the biggest electric truck commitments in the industry. The company has ordered 2,000 all-electric trucks from California manufacturer Harbinger in a deal valued at more than $300 million, announced Wednesday, Sept. 30. Harbinger calls it one of the largest binding orders for electric medium or heavy-duty trucks in history.…

Memphis basketball is going wild this fall. Memphis Madness, the yearly tipoff tradition for the 2026-27 season, will be held at the Memphis Zoo for the first time ever on October 13. The 90-minute showcase features Memphis men’s and women’s hoops alongside performances from the Mighty Sound of the South and the Memphis Spirit Squads,…

Young musicians in Memphis got a lesson most producers only dream about. On Saturday, Sept. 26, Stax Music Academy hosted four-time Grammy winner James Fauntleroy for his “Beat Garden” workshop, a free, hands-on afternoon that put real production tools and music technology directly in students’ hands. Instead of watching from the audience, students got to…

Students at Northeast Prep Academy have a new place to play. On Friday, Sept. 25, the Memphis Grizzlies unveiled their second Dream Court at the school, the latest stop in a series built to renovate basketball courts across Memphis. This year’s court was built from scratch. It comes with new hoops, new benches, and hand-painted…

Two Memphis colleges bucked the trend this fall. LeMoyne-Owen College opened with 957 students, up 37% from 697 last fall and well past its goal of 840, its highest enrollment in recent memory. Just down the road, Southwest Tennessee Community College grew enrollment 10%, from 6,720 students in 2025 to 7,388 this year, an increase…

Shovels hit the dirt this week on new construction from the Community Redevelopment Agency’s Essential Housing Program, which pairs land and funding with local builders to bring affordable homes to the Uptown and Binghampton neighborhoods. Four developers are building under the program: Nuewill Construction, Moody CDC, West TN CDC and Bee Development. Each home has…

Photo by Kinnawa Kaitibi Memphis paused Sunday to honor one of its own. Mayor Paul Young presented the key to the city to the family of Tay Keith, the Grammy-nominated Memphis producer behind some of hip-hop’s biggest records, on what would have been his 30th birthday. The city also declared September 20 Tay Keith Day.…